What role does NSG play in your life?

[Vapau]

I just joined today. I don't quite see yet how this can be life-consuming. Maybe it's the forums.

[New Swaraelia]

I just joined today. I don't quite see yet how this can be life-consuming. Maybe it's the forums.

The forums and the roleplay, really. It's like Facebook in a way, you can only entertain yourself with the base features for so long, it's the groups + pages that really make it a thing to sink hours into.

[Bombadil]

Sort of like a local pub I occasionally pop into, some old regulars, some crazies, generally the same conversation and arguments going on but fine for a quiet pint and occasional comment.

Owner's never around.

[San Echo]

Sort of like a local pub I occasionally pop into, some old regulars, some crazies, generally the same conversation and arguments going on but fine for a quiet pint and occasional comment.

Owner's never around.

A painfully accurate and poetic description.

[Thermodolia]

Idk sometimes NSG makes me more inclined to kill people.

Not ones I know rl.

Is the MTA really that bad?

[Qenoch]

I never use NSG, too moderated and too many tattlers. But been playing the game since 2005. My longest break was a year (2020)

I usually play on my lunch break and after work. I consider the game my hobby.

[Animu Place]

It made life more interesting during the summer.

[Ethel mermania]

Not ones I know rl.

Is the MTA really that bad?

To a point it has to be, but yes.

[Senkaku]

Sort of like a local pub I occasionally pop into, some old regulars, some crazies, generally the same conversation and arguments going on but fine for a quiet pint and occasional comment.

and now and then, having one too many and getting into it with the locals

[Azalfia]

A place for me to connect through regions that from there help me do some lovely nation roleplaying. It's a blast for me.

[New Kvenland]

NSG serves as a fascinating view into the mindsets of people I hope to never meet.

[Page]

This is the only place I can have the debates and arguments I want to have. People I know on social media don't care, political groups on social media are either too inactive or active but extremely dogmatic (especially if you're a leftist who questions MLM orthodoxy). I used to post on Daily Kos but it's nothing but they hate Bernie supporters and they hate real leftists even more. On Reddit conversations of value get buried by karma farmers. And in general, on most of the internet everyone is so comfortable in their mainstream bubble that they'll either assume a radical opinion is trolling or it will blow their minds so much they'll be incapable of engaging.

Most people here disagree with me on most things, but I know if I say something here like "release everyone in ICE detention and put them up in hotels for free", someone will genuinely engage most of the time.

[Dowaesk]

The distraction keeps me from killing people.

Idk sometimes NSG makes me more inclined to kill people.

For me it doesnt that much. But Twitter and reddit do. Although I dont know why I bother going back regularly. Idk.

[Dowaesk]

I just joined today. I don't quite see yet how this can be life-consuming. Maybe it's the forums.

Stay a while. You'll see the chaos

[Page]

The distraction keeps me from killing people.

Idk sometimes NSG makes me more inclined to kill people.

*I growl out loud and nearly throw my phone against the wall*

My wife: Why do you keep posting on NationStates if it pisses you off so much?

Me: Because I'm addicted to arguing just like my mother!

My wife has traumatic flashbacks of me and my mom arguing about Kavanaugh for an entire car ride from Amsterdam to Aachen and seeks out cat videos on Reddit for comfort

[Kilobugya]

Some place to have interesting discussions on subjects I care about, also giving me a broader exposure to different viewpoints and ideas.

I'm mostly intermittently active here, I'll read/post frequently for a while (a few months/years) then get bored and move to other things and then come back some years later. I've been doing that for a long time...

[GuessTheAltAccount]

NSG may have played a tiebreaking role in me going to China in the first place.

Yes, they told me China was Islamophobic. Then again, they said the same about Christopher Hitchens.

Yes, they told me China was misogynistic. They said the same about anyone who points out the simple fact that a woman has the right to drag you into poverty with her after carrying to term a fetus she told you she wouldn't keep.

Yes, they told me China was homophobic. They said the same about anyone who even suggested marriage is for procreation, even when referring to people whose proposed policies around contraception seemed to suggest they meant it.

Yes, they told me China was racist. They said the same about any and all opposition to reparations, even though they make the same mistake behind racism; treating people as groups instead of individuals.

Yes, they told me China steals the west's trade secrets. After the advocates here of intellectual property rights defended the "rights" of big pharma to overcharge for epipens.

It's like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" all over again; there was so much else to criticize China for (its grotesque neglect toward its own people in the context of workplace safety comes to mind) yet they settled for the same other things China's just a more extreme version of than the other things they criticized, which might've been fine had they saved their hyperbole for when they really needed it. But they didn't. If this happened just a few months years later, I would've been in China for the pandemic and might've been the first expat to bring COVID-19 back with me.

Which leaves behind the question; if I were the first COVID-19 transmission source from China to the west, would there have been grounds for a class action lawsuit on behalf of all COVID-19 victims against the people who cried wolf on all of the above?

[Torisakia]

It's caused me to go into a deep, spiraling depression that I will never recover from. I hope you're happy with yourselves.

[Jolthig]

Friends, a platform for information, and just being me. Simple.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Just banter. I’ve been here a long time and have made a couple of buddies. It’s nice to login here and there and joke with them every so often. Other than that, it’s just a website.

[Major-Tom]

I don't really have much of an outlet to express myself as freely as I'd like on the issues of the day in the real world. It is ironic that working closely in a state political arena actually makes you more limited and more cautious in knowing when to be vocal, and when to shut the fuck up.

I don't have to shut the fuck up here, and that's really rather nice.

Sort of like a local pub I occasionally pop into, some old regulars, some crazies, generally the same conversation and arguments going on but fine for a quiet pint and occasional comment.

Owner's never around.

This too.

[Diarcesia]

See hot takes crash and burn or people receiving the banhammer.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

When I need to be reminded that the truth is stranger than fiction, I come here. Some of the people I run into make me question my sanity.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

See hot takes crash and burn or people receiving the banhammer.

This is a site where we literally had a hotep siting three days ago. Shit's crazy.

[Diarcesia]

See hot takes crash and burn or people receiving the banhammer.

This is a site where we literally had a hotep siting three days ago. Shit's crazy.

I'm sorry, what?